IMPORTANT POINT
Trial court is well within its power to get authenticity of allegations levelled in complaint verified from other enquiry officer.

JUDGEMENT

The petitioner has sought the quashing of complaint titled “Tara Singh vs. Raj Kumar” pending before the court of learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Jammu (hereinafter to be referred as ‘the trial court’), order dated 01.07.2017 passed by the trial court directing enquiry by the respondent No.1 and subsequent enquiry conducted by the respondent No. 1 pursuant to the order dated 01.07.2017.

2. The quashing of the complaint is sought on the ground that no offence is made out from the mere perusal of the complaint and that the petitioner had in fact borrowed sum of Rs. 1.5 Lakhs from respondent No. 2 in the year 2010 and the loan transaction has been portrayed as the money received by the petitioner for the purpose of procuring the allotment of the land in favour of respondent No. 2.

3. The order dated 01.07.2017 has been impugned by the petitioner on the ground that once the report was filed by the enquiry officer pursuant to the order passed by the learned trial court under Section 202 Cr.P.C, the learned trial court could have proceeded in accordance with either Section 203 Cr.P.C or Section 204 Cr.P.C and in no manner could have directed respondent No. 1 to conduct in-depth enquiry under Section 202 Cr.P.C. It is further stated that as the order dated 01.07.2017 is without jurisdiction, so any enquiry conducted pursuant to the order dated 01.07.2017 is also void ab-initio.

4. Mr. Ajaz Choudhary, learned counsel for the petitioner during the course of his submissions, restricted his arguments only to the extent that once the enquiry report was submitted by In-charge, Police Post, Greater Kailash, Jammu pursuant to the order dated 21.02.2017 and the report was submitted by the enquiry officer, the learned trial court could not have directed the further enquiry to be conducted by respondent No. 1.

5. Mr. Sandeep Singh, learned counsel for respondent No. 2 submitted that no order of further enquiry was issued by the learned trial court, but order dated 01.07.2017 was in continuation to order dated 21.02.2017, whereby the In-charge, Police Post, Greater Kailash, Jammu was directed to conduct enquiry in terms of Section 202 Cr.P.C.

6. Heard and perused the record.

7. A perusal of the complaint filed by respondent No. 2 under Section 420 RPC reveals that the petitioner had allegedly taken an amount of Rs. 10 Lakhs from respondent No. 2 over a period of four months in the year 2010 on the assurance that he would get the land situated at Chakori Farm, R. S. Pura, allotted in favour of the petitioner. As the petitioner failed to get the land allotted in the name of the respondent No. 2, he repaid Rs. 1 lac in the year 2011 and another Rs. 1 lac in the month of August 2016 through one Sobha Singh. It was also stated in the complaint that the petitioner had cheated another person namely Sukhinder Singh in an identical manner and further that the petitioner has also deceived Pal Singh and Narinder Kour for an amount of Rs. 2 lac each on the pretext of getting their sons recruited as Class IV employees in the Fisheries Department.

8. When the said complaint was filed before the learned trial court, the learned trial court vide order dated 21.02.2017, in order to determine the authenticity of the allegations, appointed In-charge, Police Post, Greater Kailash, Jammu as enquiry officer in terms of Section 202 Cr.P.C with a direction to enquire into the matter and submit his report.

9. Record of the trial court divulges that pursuant to order dated 21.02.2017 the enquiry report was submitted by the In-charge, Police Post, Greater Kailash, Jammu and after noting that the concerned enquiry officer has not conducted the enquiry properly, perhaps because of the reason that he lacked the territorial jurisdiction over the area where the alleged occurrence took place and after taking note of the fact that the petitioner had duped number of other persons as alleged in the complaint, directed the Senior Superintendent of Police, Cri